Greenspan v. Taylor, Grove v. Obama

Sir Alan Greenspan attacks Stanford’s John Taylor this morning on Centre Court, disclaiming responsibility for the credit bubble and accusing Taylor, former Under Secretary for International Affairs in Bush’s first term and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, of “rewriting history” in his own volley last month. Greenspan assures us that this mess “will eventually subside and pass into history,” while noting he and “my good friend and former colleague” have rarely disagreed in the past.

It is unclear whether Greenspan is reconsidering his mea culpa of last fall when he testified to his “shocked disbelief” that purportedly risk-dispersing derivatives could have gone awry.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration takes a direct hit from Silicon Valley icon Andy Grove in the Washington Post, the arena of choice for those wishing to influence Senators and unnamed senior administration officials.

Citing Machiavelli, the former Intel CEO warns the Obama administration that it is high time to exit the chaos phase of organizational theory and start making decisions. Grove suggests that Obama and his SNL-spoofed Treasury Secretary need to fix the financial system before taking on health care and climate change. The suggestion has been cropping up in other friendly quarters too.

Is lumping Geitner with Nigerian scam artists a sign that the honeymoon is over?